Explorations in Pragmatic Economics

George A. Akerlof

Explorations in Pragmatic Economics

George A. Akerlof

Description

For twenty years since the publication of his seminal paper "The Market for 'Lemons'", George A. Akerlof's work has changed the way we see economics. This collection of Akerlof's most important papers provide both an introduction to Akerlof's work and a grounding in modern economics. Divided into two broad areas, micro- and macroeconomics, they cover the economics of information; the theory of unemployment; macroeconomic equilibria; the demand for money; psychology and economics; and the nature of discrimination and other social issues. Akerlof's substantial introduction to this volume tells the story of these papers, connecting them and showing how his later work has built upon his early contributions, in many cases improving their arguments, their subtlety, and their usefulness today.

Explorations in Pragmatic Economics

George A. Akerlof

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart 1: Microeconomics 1. The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism, George A. Akerlof2. The Economics of Caste and of the Rate Race and Other Woeful Tales, George A. Akerlof3. Discriminatory, Status-based Wages among Tradition-oriented, Stochastically Trading Coconut Producers, George A. Akerlof4. Economics and Identity, George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton5. The Economics of "Tagging" as Applied to the Optimal Income Tax, Welfare Programs, and Manpower Planning, George A. Akerlof6. An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States, George A. Akerlof, Janet L. Yellen, and Michael L. Katz7. Men Without Children, George A. Akerlof8. The Economic Consequences of Cognitive Dissonance, George A. Akerlof and William T. Dickens9. The Economics of Illusion, George A. Akerlof10. Procrastination and Obedience, George A. Akerlof11. Looting: The Economic Underworld of Bankruptcy for Profit, George A. Akerlof and Paul M. RomerPart 2: Macroeconomics 12. Relative Wages and the Rate of Inflation, George A. Akerlof13. The Microeconomic Foundations of a Flow of Funds Theory of the Demand for Money, George A. Akerlof14. Irving Fisher on his Head: The Consequences of Constant Threshold-Target Monitoring of Money Holdings, George A. Akerlof15. Jobs as Dam Sites, George A. Akerlof16. Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange, George A. Akerlof17. The Fair Wage-Effort Hypothesis and Unemployment, George A.Akerlof and Janet L. Yellen18. A Near-Rational Model of the Business Cycle, with Wage and Price Inertia, George A. Akerlof and Janet L. Yellen19. The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation, George A. Akerlof, William T. Dickens, George L. Perry20. Behavioral Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Behavior, George A. Akerlof

Explorations in Pragmatic Economics

George A. Akerlof

Author Information

George A. Akerlof is Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and the 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economics.

Explorations in Pragmatic Economics

George A. Akerlof

Reviews and Awards

"Explorations in Pragmatic Economics provides that long awaited compilation of favorite hits by Akerlof and his coauthors....The book compiles some of the most innovative articles written in the past few decades. It is a must read (or at least, a must skim) for any economist, be it a micro, macro, behavioral, or misbehavioral one."-- ournal of Economic Literature